I could not point you to research, I know Nebraska College did an article earlier this year on Nebraska being in need of Early Childhood Educators to come into the field as well as stay.
I have been teaching since 1986 and I believe the last 10 years have gotten even worse. I do not work in a franchise and never have but I have worked in 3 nonprofit centers and seen the turn over increase at alarming rates and the quality of educators applying far below NAEYC required education. Those who meet the standards are often inexperienced and somewhat overbearing in what they are willing to do, often leaving after time, money and energy has been invested in them.
It is a scary future for our children as more and more we push out qualified teachers who don't have the degrees behind them because they did not exist when those teachers were going to school, I am one of those. Those same teachers have way more experiences, training and passion for an extremely important job, but the Masters in ECE and a BA in ECE gets accepted from an inexperienced, untested teacher who often discovers this field is not where they want to because the work is real, the commitment intense and the pay, benefits and support are lacking.
Besides research and the wonderful promises from politicians and NAEYC I would like to see action.
1. Invest in teachers who have been in the field for 15 plus years making CDAs, degrees and classes more affordable through grants and scholarships and excepting hours in he field and continued education taken during those years to knock off some of the credit requirements to meet today's NAEYC standards.
2. Provide online training that is NAEYC and in Minnesota DEVELOP approved so it is affordable, during NON-working hours of our field and of exceptional quality. If NAEYC wants my best from me I should receive exceptional training from them.
3. Look at what is DAP and set standards based on educators who can provide this and not just on having an untested degree.
4. Make franchises meet standards, not just become approved by making it possible to be accredited and licensed by the centers that are the best in the franchise and covering for the centers that understaff, use unqualified educators and who do little to support their staff. I realize not all franchise centers do this but my experience with these centers and staff from these centers have proven more to skate by because their upper management does not support the directors under them and NAEYC and Licensors do not dig deeper to see the true issues these centers have when not expecting visits.
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Helen Meissner
Lead Teacher
Love To Grow On
Saint Paul MN
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-24-2019 01:47 AM
From: Hedy Dembowski, B.A., ECE
Subject: High turnover in preschools
Greetings fellow NAEYC members. I am curious if anyone else is experiencing or is aware of teaching staff with high burnout and turnover rates inside franchised preschools. Has any research been published on this? Thank you.
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Hedy Dembowski, B.A., ECE
Early Childhood Educator
Riverside County Office of Education
Menifee CA
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